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Review of School Board Minutes

The Year at a Glance

Leigh GilworthEDFA 51900Fall 2012 Dr. Sperling

School Board Minutes School board minutes are conveniently

posted for the public online at: http://www.munster.k12.in.us/SchoolBoard/stm-sb.htm.

Other information such as meeting dates for the year, the agenda for the upcoming board meeting, the administrative compensation agreement and a guide to the meetings can also be found here. By taking all these steps, the district is ensuring that School Board meetings are easily accessible and understood by the general public.

School Board Minutes

There are several “hot topics” that are discussed during the course of the year in review, including:– Public concerns.– Student and staff achievement.– Employee requests.– Personnel recommendations.– Construction updates.– Policy changes.– Curriculum issues.– Finance issues.

Public Concerns As a School Board, it is vital to listen to stakeholders’

concerns about what the school district is doing. The Munster school board has had a long history of

working and communicating with the public to address issues that are raised at the board meetings.

While there are times that an issue can’t be resolved at the board meeting, they will be brought up at the following meeting. Working with the superintendent, central administration staff and school principals, the School Board makes sure that the public’s concerns do not fall on deaf ears. This is beneficial to the district to maintain positive relations with the various stakeholders. It is also important to take into consideration the public’s concerns so that they can be addressed and don’t result in law suits against the school.

Public ConcernsSome of the issues that have been

brought up by the public as major concerns include the following topics:– Salaries and fringe benefits of the School Board

members.– The 1 to 1 Technology Initiative (laptops for students in

grades 5-12).– Approval of the lease purchase agreement of the

infrastructure for computers.– Hazing within the swimming program in Munster.– The process and selection of Mr. Richard Sopko as the

new superintendent.– Getting the Board’s agenda posted online earlier than

the day of the meeting.

Student and Staff AchievementThe School Board took a few moments at

each meeting to recognize certain students and staff members who had done an exemplary job on a project or contest.

While this does not have any legal issues tied with it, it does show that the school board is in tune with what is happening in the district and cares enough to single out and congratulate those students and teachers.

Employee Requests

At every meeting, the School Board addressed the requests from teachers and administrators, which must be Board approved, for the following things: – Overnight field trips.– Maternity leave.– Medical leave.– Professional development.

Employee Requests The School Board is required to approve these requests

because they generally entail some expenditure of money to either pay for the leave or to pay for someone to take the person’s place in their absence.

While things such as professional development conferences do cost money, they help to keep administrators and teachers up to date with changes in the educational world.

– Professional development opportunities for administrators often hinge on making sure the school leaders are up to date on safety codes and provide guidelines to help the leader act fairly, legally and ethically when conducting the day to day business of running a school.

– For teachers, professional development makes sure that they are providing the best education possible to students. Many of the professional development conferences center around best teaching practices, inclusion of special education students and following state standards.

– By keeping informed, administrators and teachers can ensure that they are not violating the rights of students and are following the expectations of the state.

Employee Requests

By going through administrator and staff requests at the meetings, the School Board is ensuring that the public knows where some of the money is going and for what purposes. Specific costs of each trip are also given so that there are no secrets. This open communication allows the public to see that Munster is keeping its employees up to date on changes in education so that the students can get the best education possible.

Personnel RecommendationsAt every meeting, the School Board

discusses various recommendations for personnel. These include:– Recommendations for hiring regular or support

staff.– Retirements.– Resignations.– Terminations. – Transfers. – Temporary contracts.– Addendum position resignations or

appointments.– Non-renewal of non-permanent teachers.

Personnel Recommendations Acting as the voice of the community, all personnel

decisions must be voted on and approved by the School Board.

Many of these personnel decisions involve contracts. Therefore, if the board is going to issue, change or break a contract, they need to make sure they are doing this legally. This requires both the district and the person being hired to understand the language of the contract.

Once a staff member is granted a contract, it becomes challenging to fire them. If the board is considering termination, they must make sure that the firing was done legally, allowing the person being terminated to go through the steps of due process. If terminations are not done legally, the district stands to be a plaintiff in a law suit.

Personnel RecommendationsBy going through the various personnel

recommendations, the district employees as well as the community are kept informed of changes in personnel and who is working with the students in various positions. It also allows the public to know the types of contracts that are being issued to various staff members.

Construction Updates In recent years, the STM has

gone through tremendous renovations to improve the facilities offered to students. The School Board has gotten some flack over the amount of money that has been spent on facilities, while cuts have been made to other areas. In order to keep the public up to date on the status of construction projects and explain where money was going, the Board often reviewed the progress being made.

Construction Updates Some of the construction projects included demolition

of the high school and middle school pools to make new classrooms, construction of a more modern arena at the middle school, a new elementary parking lot, and an elementary school landscaping project.

It is important for the public to be kept informed of these items because they were occurring during the school year and thus affected the students and traffic patterns around the schools.

Legal issues that were tied into the new construction involved the schools needing to ensure that facilities were safe for the children during construction. It was also necessary to know what strangers were in the building during the school day and make sure that the construction was not adversely disrupting the students’ learning.

Policy ChangesSince the state and federal statutes are

constantly evolving, it is necessary for the School Board to review not only the district policy but also the handbooks used in the schools to ensure that they are in compliance with the laws and following new court precedents.

Changes to the district policy or the student handbook are presented to the Board and they are given the final vote on whether to change the language.

Policy Changes

It is important that the district employees and the general public are aware of changes in policies. For staff, parents and students, it is especially important because failure to recognize these changes can result in charges of noncompliance and serious consequences. It also keeps the public informed of changes that have occurred at the state or national level that affect education.

Curriculum Issues Public schools are required to use state standards for

teaching curriculum to children. Since the standards can change, it is important that schools are complying by having curriculum change. Changes to curriculum, as well as changes to textbooks, came up several times in the minutes.

Fees and textbook rental were also approved. This surprised me since I didn’t think public schools were permitted to charge for books from the various cases we examined; fees are obviously allowed in Indiana whether by statute or by the case law determined at the judicial level. However, parents struggling to pay the rental fees can apply for assistance.

For past curriculum changes, some presentations were given by teachers and students on the benefits and usefulness of the change, particularly in regards to the 1 to 1 initiative.

Curriculum Issues By discussing the changes in curriculum and

showing the benefits of past curriculum choices, the public is kept informed of what the district is offering to students, as well as whether past choices are going as well as planned.

Finance Issues Financial issues are one of the most

commonly talked about subjects for the STM School Board. Likely, throughout the nation, budget concerns are commonly discussed as school districts count each penny. Some of the financial issues dealt with:– Approval of different aspects of the overall budget.– Acceptance of donations.– Approval of accounts payable vouchers.– Approval of various grants.– Bus financing and gas costs.

Finance Issues All school budgets must be

approved by the state. Therefore, it is vital that the School Board and Superintendent make sure that they are following the laws concerning budget and completing all paperwork and steps necessary. Failure to follow the law and budget policies could result in a huge money crisis for the district.

Finance IssuesThe district and the public need to be

informed of the budget. The ins and outs of the budget are very complex and without some knowledge of how the money is spent, the public can get upset over things they don’t understand. It is also important that the public knows about the financial issues so that in the case of a referendum, they can make the best choice for the schools.